Akira
'Ryo "Akira" Kongoji '''is one of the characters in Dance Dance Revolution franchise. He is Yuni's Chinese bodyguard and partner who let her out of her mansion to dance with her friends. A proud and strong person who protects her from any disputes and conflicts. In DDR X, He was mentioned by both Bonnie and Rage due to his appearance as Yuni's bodyguard who follows her in her Street Master Mode and his cameo appearance in Yuni's epilogue. His name alias is confirmed throughout his bio data as "Solid Temple". Games in order of appearance: *Dance Dance Revolution 4thMIX ''(2000) *DDRMAX (During "Centre of the Heart (Stonebridge Club Mix)" background video) (2001) *DDRMAX2 -Dance Dance Revolution 7thMIX- (2002) *Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME (2003) * Dance Dance Revolution Party Collection (2003) *Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME 2 (2005) *Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 4 (2006) *DanceDanceRevolution X (Yuni's epilogue in SMM) (2008) Design and Conception Here is the concept of his character: "He is the SP to the Berth family and the strongest in his unit at the very young age who has been entrusted as the escort of Yuni. He's also having problems with her from sneaking out of the house to go dance or to hang out with her friends. ''----Special Notes in 4thMIX'' Character and Personality Akira is described as a proud and strong person who does not show dislike towards the dancers including Yuni. But he shows his hatred towards crowded people who make disputes and conflicts. He is also shown to be a very good unarmed combatant who loves to fight and expert in grappling as well as shooting firearms as seen on his artwork wielding a handgun as part of his hobbies when he is not dancing. This also shows in "Centre of the Heart (Stonebridge Club Mix)" background video where he shoots multiple times directly on the target bull's eye with his handgun. Akira portrays as a bodyguard to Yuni who protects her from any disputes and conflicts but also having problems with her when she sneaks away to dance or to hangs out with her friends. Later in DDR X during Yuni's SMM, he continues to serve as Yuni's bodyguard and mostly follows her after the latter sneaks away at her mansion to buy Rage's famous takoyaki. Yuni was angrily aware of his actions who keeps on watching her while she was out of her mansion and she noticed that he's been following her the whole time even she pretends to dance with anyone else to make a distraction or trying to avoid him from being followed when she uses crowded people as a leverage to make her get away. Akira is later seen being terrified to Yuni while he carries a few boxes of takoyaki within the four plastic bags in Yuni's epilogue after Rage tells her that he was doing his job after the latter angrily noticed him from following her. Appearance Akira is a young Chinese man in an Asian descent with short black hair and black eyes. In 4thMIX up to Party Collection, he wears a dark gray formal vest under a white long sleeve button shirt with a black neck tie with white linings on the collar, dark gray pants with black linings in each side of his pants and black shoes. He also wears a silver watch on his left wrist. In his in-game appearance, his silver watch is not seen. In Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME 2/STRIKE, his 4thMIX appearance has been updated and the formal vest and pants from his 4thMIX outfit is now black instead of dark gray and the black linings on his pants are not seen but maintains the button shirt, tie and shoes that he wears from his original outfit. His alternate appearance in Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME 2/STRIKE is his 4thMIX outfit as the white button shirt changed to navy blue, his formal vest and pants changed to white and his neck tie is now red instead of black with white linings but maintains his black shoes from his original outfit. In Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 4, he retains his updated 4thMIX appearance but with minor changes on his primary outfit, the white button shirt, tie and shoes that he wears has been retained. His formal vest and pants are now charcoal gray. Akira has three outfits when he was chosen in the game. His second outfit was his alternate appearance in Dance Dance Revolution EXTREME 2/STRIKE but with minor changes. The button shirt that he wears changed to black instead of navy blue and his white formal vest and pants along with his red neck tie from his alternate appearance are retained. His black hair changed to brown and his black shoes changed to a matching white leather shoes to match his outfit. He also wears black and gray sunglasses as an addition. It can be seen randomly without the sunglasses when you chose him in the game. His third outfit is a blue long sleeve loose button Cheongsam with a golden dragon design at the right side of his front shirt and its full body design at the back of his loose shirt and has white folded sleeves at the edge of his sleeves, black Chinese pants with white folded sleeves in each sides at the edge of his pants and black sneakers with white soles. This outfit carries over to Disco in DDR UNIVERSE as his fourth outfit as the color of his outfit was maroon with golden yellow designs. His fourth and last outfit is a white and gray futuristic suit with a dark blue neck tie in it's collar as each side of his hip from his suit pants has black linings and white futuristic boots with two dark blue lines in each side of his boots. It also has a sign of "SP" at the upper back of his suit and his hair becomes purple. Before choosing his fourth outfit in the game or being acquaintance to the player during Quest Mode, his hair is indigo blue as it changes to purple when he dances along with the player. In DDR X, Akira is later seen in a jet black formal suit jacket under a white long sleeve button shirt with a gray neck tie on the collar, matching black pants and shoes which he continues to work as Yuni's bodyguard during Yuni's epilogue in her Street Master Mode. Street Master Mode In DDR X, Akira has a minor role in Yuni's Street Master Mode where he follows Yuni whenever she sneaks away at her mansion to buy Rage's famous takoyaki and she angrily sensed that he's been watching her most of the time while she meets up with Gus at the mall as well as she meets up with Emi at the train station. Akira was mentioned a few times by Yuni and is angrily aware of his actions that he was following her most of the time after she sneaks away at her mansion. Later on, Bonnie noticed that he was watching at Yuni which makes the latter get pissed after hearing that he was following her. Yuni tells her to pretend to dance together to make him unaware where she is and nothing has happen between them. As her plan succeeds, Bonnie noticed his appearance rather than not finding him in which Yuni wants to know who he is. At MAX Carnival, Akira watches Yuni dances in a dance contest as she was challenged by Rage to get his takoyaki. After Yuni defeats him, Rage gives her the takoyaki for free as well as he does and Yuni became angrily pissed knowing that Akira was following her the whole time and Rage tells her to take it easy and he was doing his job. Yuni cannot carry the few boxes of takoyaki at her mansion and it's a good thing that Akira helps her carry the boxes. Akira becomes terrified to see her not helping him while carrying the boxes of takoyaki inside within the four plastic bags as Yuni simply eats the takoyaki happily. Trivia *Akira's full name is Ryo "Akira" Kongoji although his first name is pseudonym because of the kanji word can be read as his nickname. * According to his bio data from 4thMIX and onwards, his name alias "Solid Temple" is used instead of his full name by fans. *Standing at 6'2", Akira is the second tallest human character in the DanceDanceRevolution series. *He bears a striking resemblance to Phoenix Wright the main character of the game series,"The Ace Attorney" as both men who have short black hair in a similar hairstyle and wear corporate business suits (Akira's outfit is black while Phoenix's outfit is blue) but in different occupations as Akira portrays as a bodyguard and partner to Yuni while Phoenix portrays as a lawyer who takes on murder cases on courts as well as being a detective to find any evidence in other different crimes. Both men also have young female partners to assist them (Maya and Yuni respectively as the latter always sneaking away from him at her mansion). **Their nationality however are different in which Phoenix from Ace Attorney series of games is Japanese while Akira from DDR games is Chinese. **In DDR X during Yuni's epilogue in her Street Master Mode, Akira's outfit is based off Phoenix Wright but his suit outfit is black instead of blue. *In the "Centre of the Heart (Stonebridge Club Mix)" background video, Akira is later seen wielding a handgun after shooting multiple times directly to the target bull's eye. **His shooting stance is based on his promotional art in DDR 4thMIX and Nagisa's fighting stance in Battle Arena Toshinden 3. *He also appears along with Rage, Emi and Yuni in Sweet Sweet ♥ Magic where he was last seen dancing after Yuni performing her dance moves along with both Rage and Emi *Aside from dancing, Akira does not show off his skills when he is dancing throughout the game. But in the fanfic, The Mystery. He finally shows off his skills and is the real culprit behind the scenes while being possessed by the Medusa's spirit known as the "shadow" who can petrify his victims into stone with both of his eyes turning red which everyone is unaware of his presence as Yuni knows of his actions when he horribly scares her and also responsible for grappling Devil-Zukin down to the ground as well as he strangles Disco with both of his hands while everyone is not looking during the black out and later Rage after he grapples him down at the very end of the story. *In Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 4, Akira's third outfit resembles Marshall Law's second outfit in Tekken 5, Tekken 6 and Lei Wulong's Tekken Tag Tournament 2 ending as the color scheme of his outfit is based off Lei's primary outfit in Tekken 2 ''and it's updated ones in ''Tekken 5 up to Tekken Tag Tournament 2. ** The word "SP" from his fourth outfit means "Super Police" as a nod to Lei's role in the Tekken series. *In DDR X, He and Johnny are the only characters to appear as a cameo in both Jenny and Yuni's epilogue respectively. Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:DDR 4thMIX Category:DDR Extreme 2